“A Christian preacher who was part of an alleged paedophile ring in Perth has been sentenced to more than a decade in prison.

Dawid Volmer, also known as David Volmer, a 41-year-old father of two originally from South Africa, was sentenced to ten years and six months in prison for 12 offences he committed against a young girl, including sexual penetration of a child, indecently dealing with a child and stupefying in order to commit­ an indictable offence.

Police named Volmer earlier this year as one of eight men alleged­ to have raped and mol­ested­ the girl dozens of times over the past two years. One of the men was the girl’s father, who is alleged to have facilitated the abuse by arrangin­g for the other men to meet her at various locations, where the crimes took place. She was aged between 11 and 13 at the time.

During sentencing submissions in the West Australian District Court prosecutor Robert Wilson told the court the victim, her father and Volmer met up after the father “responded” to an online advertisement posted by Volmer on website Craigslist.

The court was told Volmer, who appeared distressed and cried during today’s proceedings, committed the offences against the victim on one occasion in a Perth hotel room he had booked and on two occasions at a home in a northern Perth suburb where the girl and her father lived between February last year and March this year.

On each occasion Volmer presented a small bottle of Amyl Nitrate, a muscle relaxant he had purchased at an adult sex store, and that himself, the victim and her father had sniffed the vapour, the court heard.

Mr Wilson told the court when Volmer first met the girl and her father in a park he suspected she was under the age of 16 but her father claimed she was over 16.

Volmer later told police in an interview that “he knew that he would be getting himself into trouble if he took it any further” than the meeting in the park.

WA District Court Judge Mark Herron said Volmer engaged in sexual acts with a young girl knowing she was being forced and exploited by her father.

Justice Herron said after abusing the girl at the hotel Volmer had “fantasised” about interacting sexually with her.

The court heard the victim’s father was present during all of the abuse and on the two occasions Volmer abused her in her home he made the girl strip naked and lie on a bed with a blindfold on while he raped her, as her father sat in the same room also blindfolded.

Justice Herron said the acts committed by Volmer would have been a distressing, degrading and humiliating ordeal for the victim.

“You tried to rationalise your behaviour by convincing yourself you were not harming the girl,” he said.

Volmer was sentenced to a non-parole period of eight and a half years.

Police allege between them the men committed more than 500 sex-abuse offences against the girl, who is now in care.

Volmer, who pleaded guilty to the offences in July, is believed to have moved to Perth in 2012 and became state director of the Prison Fellowship Program, a non-profit body set up to “share the love of Jesus to prisoners, their families and victims of crime”.

He faces mandatory deportation to his native South Africa after serving his sentence under powers given to Immigration Minister Peter Dutton.